President Cyril Ramaphosa responding to oral questions in the National Assembly, at the Good Hope Chambers in Cape Town. [Photo: GCIS]
Ramaphosa on state of disaster: ‘If you have a problem, I’m sorry’
President Cyril Ramaphosa had quite a bit to say to opposition MPs who strongly criticised the decision to keep the State of Disaster
President Cyril Ramaphosa responding to oral questions in the National Assembly, at the Good Hope Chambers in Cape Town. [Photo: GCIS]
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reminded opposition MPs that the country’s lockdown restrictions have been eased quite drastically, but that the focus remains proactively fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ramaphosa answered questions from MPs during a sitting at the Good Hope Chamber in Cape Town on Thursday, 17 March 2022.
The State of Disaster has been extended to 15 April 2022. This means the country will have officially been under the State of Disaster for 25 months, as the first declaration by Ramaphosa was in March 2020.
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‘I AM NOT GOING TO BE RECKLESS’ – RAMAPHOSA
It was clearly a given that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be grilled about the State of Disaster, particularly given the fact that its extension has been strongly criticised – including by health experts themselves.
In addition, the DA announced it would be launching court action to compel government to scrap the State of Disaster and essentially end the lockdown.
Ramaphosa told MPs that government planned to eventually end the restrictions, but just not yet.
“We moved away from the harder state of disaster regulations to health regulations, because now we are dealing with a health pandemic. If you have a problem with that, I’m sorry. We are being guided by scientists to act in the best interests of South Africans. Health regulations are not destroying jobs,”
President Cyril Ramaphosa
The president says government has been engaging various leaders on the way forward, including new regulations which would be replacing the State of Disaster.
“We want to see the State of Disaster coming to an end, but I am not going to be reckless, I am going to be orderly, and in days, I am going to address the nation and explain precisely where we are headed to, and how we are going to traverse this new route we are going on”
President Cyril Ramaphosa
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